[WayneBro]

Windows 8 was not a UX disaster. It just wasn't finished. How long did you use it for?

I personally used it the whole time it was available. Despite the fact that it was unfinished, it was still vastly superior in many ways to other desktop systems. So, I'm quite certain that I don't know what you mean at all when you say "UX disaster".

[baldfat]

I prefer Window 8 since I use a tiled Window Manager (i3) on Linux. Windows 8 was a much better productivity UI for me since I never had to touch a mouse unless I was in a program that specifically worked better with a mouse.

[Sylos]

Since you seem to want actual evidence that Windows 8's UX was a disaster, well, what's the biggest difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 for a user? It's the UX, I assume you can agree.

And if you look at the marketshare of Windows 7 vs. Windows 8/8.1, you see a pretty big difference.

StatCounter (includes mobile): 20.36% vs. 5.64%

netmarketshare.com: 48.27% vs. 9.61%

Steam Hardware Survey: 36.38% vs. 10,78%

Now, you might respond with Windows 7 simply having more adoption, because it has been around longer, which is a valid point. I can only really refute that with the anecdotal evidence, that Windows 7 is currently seeing more growth off of the people moving away from XP and Windows 10, than Windows 8 is seeing.

[simonh]

Most actual users had a disastrous experience of it. Hence user experience disaster.

[krylon]

To be fair, I work as a sysadmin / helpdesk monkey / sometimes-developer at a Windows shop, and the amount of complaints about Windows 8 was a lot lower than I had expected. A couple of users did ask me, however, to install ClassicShell on their machines. (Windows 8 has given me more trouble sysadmin-wise than its predecessors, but most of that was due to third-party software. Especially, Windows 8 will regularly hang on startup say "Please wait...", at least on some machines - but that has nothing to do with the GUI.)

Personally, I still think the lack of a start menu is very disruptive - and since Microsoft re-introduced it in Windows 10 makes me think I was not alone in thinking so.

[digi_owl]

The basic problem with Windows 8 was that Metro apps and Win32 programs didn't mingle. The whole desktop was basically treated, within the UI at least, as a single big app.

Come 8.1 and this was partially reversed, with Metro apps being possible to manage much like Win32 programs (showing up on taskbar, could be closed or minimized via icons top right).

And i must say i kinda like using the start page concept for launching programs once i have things set so i go right to the "list" rather than dealing with the live tiles.

I have been contemplating getting a smaller Windows based tablet as an alternative to my existing Android one.

[ansible]

The basic problem with Windows 8 was that Metro apps and Win32 programs didn't mingle. The whole desktop was basically treated, within the UI at least, as a single big app.

Hah. The first time I played a music file in Win8, the application took over my screen, and I had 50 Cent glaring at me (almost larger than life) while my song was playing. I guess he though my music was inadequate, and thought I should buy his stuff instead.

Also, just going to the program tiles screen was just a wall of visual noise. All these tiles were animated, it was hard to focus on what was there with all that going on. You can (and I did) turn off animations for them (or just delete them from the shortcut list), which helped a lot. So yeah, that was not a great first experience.

I'm totally fine with Windows 10 these days, at least as far as UI goes.

[krylon]

> The basic problem with Windows 8 was that Metro apps and Win32 programs didn't mingle.

True! OTOH, I have never seen one of our users use a Metro App intentionally. At most they would run into the builtin PDF viewer if no other viewer was installed or registered to open PDFs.

One of my coworkers has a Windows phone, and he tells me on the phone the interface is very nice. But I still cannot imagine what the people at Microsoft must have been thinking...

[digi_owl]

Best i can tell, Microsoft wants to get rid of Win32. But their attempts are hopelessly hamfisted.

[krylon]

In the sense of Win32 the API, I can understand their desire well. ;-) I worked on an application written in C for Win32 for about two years, and while I learned a lot about C in that time, I came to despise the Win32 API.

On the other hand, I don't think they will ever get completely rid of that thanks to the huge, huge body of existing third-party apps.

[WayneBro]

"Most actual users"?

How about a citation?

[V-2]

"Most" isn't probably true, but the number was quite significant, indirectly confirmed by Microsoft by backing down from some design decisions in version 8.1 (bringing the Start button back) and 10 (restoring the more traditional-looking Start menu). Userbase pressure was an obvious factor in these choices / concessions. I can't recollect anything similar in the history of Windows UX.

[agumonkey]

I consider myself experienced and unbiased, but the visual inconsistencies (animation glitches, awkward scales and proportions) drove me away from trying Win8 longer. I'd be very curious to have more details about your experience with it considering your above message.

[Zardoz84]

The thing is that windows 8 (and 8.1) was perfect for a tablet or a tablet pc user. How ever, for a normal desktop user, would feel at least strange.